Mary Quant, the Miniskirt and the Chelsea Palace on the King’s Road « Another Nickel In The Machine Bazaar in 1955 Bazaar and the Markham Arms (now a Santander bank) today The King’s Road in 1958. The Bluebird Garage can be seen down the road at numbers 330-350. The garage was opened in 1923 and was the largest in Europe with room for 300 cars in the main garage. The King’s Road today-ish. The garage is now a restaurant of course. The shop, which they called Bazaar, opened in November 1955 and was an almost immediate success with the stock flying out of the door. Although initially this was partly to do with naively selling their clothes and accessories too cheaply thus not only losing money on everything they sold but also upsetting the local shops and their wholesalers by undercutting the fixed retail prices. It wasn’t long, however, that the trio of entrepreneurs realised that by luck they were on to a huge thing: We were in at the beginning of a tremendous renaissance in fashion. It was not happening because of us.

It was simply that, as things turned out, we were a part of it. Mary Quant and Alexander Plunket Green Mary Quant and APG worked incredibly hard. They had also opened a restaurant in the basement of Markham House which soon became the place to come to in Chelsea. But if they worked hard they also played hard – incredibly they were still both only twentyone. According to Quant the couple always found time to visit the music hall shows at the Chelsea Palace theatre down the road from Bazaar. At the time the shows were often slightly risqué in nature. “We went once a week” said Mary. “the Chelsea Palace chorus girls wore very naughty fur bikini knickers.” It must have been a very funny show… Paul Raymond’s ‘Burlesque’ was performed at the Chelsea Palace in 1955 Burlesque by Paul Raymond – how kind of Jeye’s Fluid to sponsor the show (see the bottom of the bill) Chelsea Palace of Varieties The Chelsea Palace of Varieties had opened for business in 1903 at 232-42 King’s Road on the corner of Sydney Street opposite the Town Hall. It seated 2524 people.

Marie Lloyd appeared there in 1909 and performed an act so vulgar that a complaint was made to the London County Council. By 1923 it started to be used as a cinema as well as showing straight plays and ballets. In 1925 it was taken over by Variety Theatres Consolidated and from then until its closure in March 1957 it presented live theatre, often of a risque nature. One of the shows put on in 1955 called ‘Burlesque’ was produced by Paul Raymond at the beginning of his career. During the latter part of 1956 the Chelsea Palace ran a Radio Luxembourg talent competition and it was won for four weeks in a row by the Fantasie coffee shop regulars – the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group. McDevitt described his flat in Chelsea at the time: The flat I the King’s Road was an ideal pad in an ideal position. It provided a haven for many an itinerant jazzer, visiting American folkies and unsuspecting embryo groupies. During the Chelsea Palace talent contests McDevitt met a twenty year old Glaswegian singer called Anne Wilson whose stage name was Nancy Whiskey.

Within six months Nancy Whiskey and McDevitt’s skiffle group had recorded a single called Freight Train. Amazingly, to most people concerned, it actually ended up in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. They even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in the US along side the Everly Brothers six years before the Beatles’ famous appearance. The particularly British institution of skiffle only lasted two or three years perhaps but its influence was long-lasting. It was a do-it-yourself reaction to the bland mediocrity that many young people felt about the popular music of the time. This was echoed twenty years later in the mid-seventies with punk which had a lot of similarities with skiffle. The Kings Road played its part in that too. With his new success Chas McDevitt opened his own coffee bar in Berwick Street in Soho which he called, of course, the Freight Train coffee bar. The swinging sixties were a bit of a myth this is what the King’s Road really looked like. The King’s Road: Sundays weren’t for shopping in the Sixties In 1957 the Chelsea Palace was renamed the Chelsea Granada and was to become a cinema.

Although almost immediately the building was leased to Granada Television, within the same company, and the stalls in the theatre were replaced by a studio floor and it became Granada Studio 10 for the next eight years to augment the specially built studio complex in Manchester. Sidney Bernstein, who with his brother Cecil owned Granada and which had recently won the franchise license to broadcast commercial television in the north west of England, numbered their studios by just using even numbers. This was simply so as to appear they owned more studios than they did. It was actually the last of the London theatre to TV studio conversions. The Shepherd’s Bush Empire was now a BBC studio and Associated Television had already converted the Hackney Empire and the Wood Green Empire. Incidentally it was at the Wood Green theatre in 1918 that the American magician known as Chung Ling Soo, (or William Robinson as he was really called) was tragically shot and fatally injured while performing his infamous act which involved catching (or not) a bullet between his teeth. His last words were “Oh my God. Something’s happened. Lower the curtain.” It shocked everyone. Not so much that he had been shot but that he wasn’t Chinese and spoke perfect English.

William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, told almost no one that he wasn’t Chinese. Boris Karloff wonders ‘Who Killed Chung Ling Soo’. Studio 10 was used for the long running and extremely popular comedy series – the Army Game which ran for five years from 1957. An incredible 154 episodes were broadcast and the cast included many that would become household names for decades to come – Alfie Bass, Geoffrey Palmer, Bill Fraser, Dick Emery and Bernard Bresslaw and the writers included a young John Junkin, Marty Feldman and Barry Took. The Army Game Another very popular show that came from Granada’s King’s Road studio was the variety show called Chelsea at Nine. It ran for three series and purposely took advantage of the studio’s location in the capital to feature artists that were appearing in town. This meant that sometimes you would get one of the finest jazz musicians on earth playing after a comedian that would struggle to get on the end of a bill in Skegness. Ella Fitzgerald once had to introduce an act who was appearing after her on the show as ‘the world’s greatest song and dance spoons man’. She laughed and laughed and simply couldn’t do it.

On the 23rd of February 1959 a very gaunt and very unsteady Billie Holiday was helped up on stage and performed three songs. Strange Fruit, Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone and I Loves You Porgy. Luckily for us the shows were by then being recorded but they proved to be the last she ever made and she died just five months later of cirrhosis of the liver in a New York hospital on 17th July. Only Strange Fruit and I Loves You Porgy still survive. Billie Holiday – I Loves You Porgy The Chelsea Palace was shamefully demolished by developers in 1966 after Granada vacated the premises. If one day you’re buying a sofa in Heals which is situated on the corner of the King’s Road and Sydney Street where the Chelsea Palace once stood, you might take a few moments to note that one of the world’s greatest ever singers sang a few songs maybe just where you’re standing. Heals today and not the Chelsea Palace King’s Road in 1967 By the time the Chelsea Palace was demolished the miniskirt was ubiquitous on the King’s Road and pretty well everywhere else.

In the ten years since she and APK had opened Bazaar she had become an international success. Quant and her clothes were an integral part of the so-called Swinging London. At the age of 32, dressed of course in a miniskirt, she received an OBE from the Queen. Brilliant Pathé footage of Mary Quant in 1967 Loudon Wainwright who wrote a column for Life magazine and was based in London In 1967 Loudon Wainwright, father of Loudon Wainwright III and grandfather to Rufus and Martha was working in London for Life magazine. In his column called ‘The View From Here’ he wrote: Until very recently one of my least crucial handicaps has been a sort of built-in propriety which, for example has forced me to avert my eyes whenever I say that a lady was going to have difficulty with her skirt. By difficulty I mean that the skirt was threatening to go up too high – in a chair, in the wind, as its owner disembarked from a taxi. Loudon continues… I’m not sure how this propriety has survived the miniskirt fashions…but a few days of lovely spring weather in London have abolished it forever.

The balmy sunshine there brought out the miniskirts in mind-reeling profusion. The town was positively atwinkle with thighs…the training of years misspent in the useless protection of female modesty betrayed me, and I had to learn how to stare. Yet soon the delightful truth that I was supposed to notice - burst upon me.. A few months later Mary Quant was interviewed in the Guardian That’s the thing about today’s fashions – they’re sexy to look at but really more puritan than they’ve ever been. In European countries where they ban mini-skirts in the streets and say they’re an invitation to rape, they don’t understand about stocking tights underneath.

Miniskirts and men outside Bazaar in 1966/7 Mary Quant and APG in 1964 Mary Quant's Bazaar Mary Quant's Bazaar Mary Quant, designer of the mini skirt, opened her boutique here Location: Markham House, 138a King's Road, Chelsea, sw3 4uu Description: In October 1955, she teamed up with her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Greene, and an accountant, Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called Bazaar. Greene had inherited 5,000 pounds on his 21st birthday, and the three decided to go into business together. They rented Markham House, a three-story building here in London's artist district of Chelsea. They opened a boutique on the first floor and a restaurant in the basement. They called the boutique Bazaar. Its owners knew little about the business beyond Quant's fashion philosophy: I can't bear over-accessorization... a white hat worn with white gloves, white shoes and a white umbrella, she declared in Quant by Quant. Rules are invented for lazy people who don't want to think for themselves.

True to her philosophy, Quant searched for the clothes she herself wanted to wear, selling miniskirts, funky dresses, bright tights and bras called Booby Traps to young people. The shop capitalized on the buying power of baby boomers, those born during the sharp increase in birthrate following the end of World War II, who were beginning to grow into teenagers. Naive about the mechanics of running a retail business, Quant and her partners sold their wares with a markup much smaller than any nearby store, without realizing they were actually taking a loss on many items. It was no wonder we did such a roaring trade the moment we opened, she later wrote. The shop was constantly stripped bare--sometimes we hardly had enough to dress the window--because we never bought enough of anything. Quant quickly discovered that manufacturers weren't making the kinds of clothes she wanted to sell, so she set up her own manufacturing outfit in her apartment, hiring a dressmaker to come during the day and help. Quant herself sewed dresses at night to sell the next day in the shop. I had to sell one day's output before I had the money to go out and buy more material, she recalled, noting that at first, I didn't think of myself as a designer.

I just knew that I wanted to concentrate on finding the right clothes for the young to wear and the right accessories to go with them. Struggling to make ends meet and suffering ridicule from the press and some passers-by, Quant persevered. In less than ten years, her clothing designs was world famous, selling in 150 shops in Britain, 320 stores in the United States, and throughout the world: France, Italy, Switzerland, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and more. The miniskirt, for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. The miniskirt was developed separately by Andre Courrges, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, the Mini. In the basement here was (until 2008), a club called the Bosun's Locker, which became a haven for the nu-folk scene and where Laura Marling and Noah and the Whale, Mumford and Sons, etc. got kick started on the way to stardom.

Mary Quant - - Biography.com Mary Quant London designer Mary Quant is immortalized by fashion iconography as the originator of the miniskirt. IN THESE GROUPS Famous British People Synopsis Immortalized by fashion iconography as the originator of the miniskirt, London designer Mary Quant had an art-school background and had been designing and manufacturing her own clothes since the late 1950s. She had one distinct advantage over previous designers: She was a contemporary of her clients, rather than of an older generation. Convinced that fashion needed to be affordable to be accessible to the young, she opened her own retail boutique, Bazaar, on the Kings Road in 1955, introducing the "mod" era and the "Chelsea look." Early Life Mary Quant was born on February 11, 1934, in Blackheath, London, England, to Welsh teachers Jack and Mary Quant, who were originally from mining families. She went to Blackheath High School before studying illustration at Goldsmiths College. Quant achieved a diploma in art education from Goldsmiths and went on to become an apprentice couture milliner, at which point she began designing and manufacturing clothes.

She met her future husband and business partner, Alexander Plunkett-Greene, at Goldsmiths. The couple wed in 1957 and had a son together, Orlando. The two were happily married until Plunkett-Greene's death in 1990. Famed Fashion Designer Quant had one distinct advantage over previous designers: she was a contemporary of her clients, rather than of an older generation. Convinced that fashion needed to be affordable to be accessible to the young, she opened her own retail boutique, Bazaar, on the Kings Road in 1955, with the help of Plunkett-Greene and former solicitor Archie McNair, introducing the "mod" era and the "Chelsea look." The best-selling items were white plastic collars used to brighten up black dresses or T-shirts and black stretch leggings. In her quest for new and interesting clothes for Bazaar, Quant wasn't satisfied with the range of clothes available and decided that the shop would have to be stocked with clothes made by herself.

Knee-high, white, patent plastic, lace-up boots and tight, skinny rib sweaters in stripes and bold checks, which came to epitomize the "London look," were the result. Along with trendy fashion shows and window displays, she secured her reputation through the production of original clothing, sold in affordable boutiques, for the new youth-orientated market. Following on the success of the first Chelsea store, a second Bazaar opened in Knightsbridge in 1961. By 1963, Quant was exporting to the United States, going into mass-production to keep up with the demand, and the Mary Quant worldwide brand was born. The mid-1960s saw Quant at the height of her fame, when she created the micro-mini and the "paint box" makeup of 1966, and added the shiny, plastic raincoats and little grey pinafore dresses that came to epitomize the 1960s fashion era. She expanded her brand further into a range of original patterned tights, a range of cosmetics and other fashion accessories.

Quant has claimed that she did not invent the miniskirt, but, rather, the girls who visited her shops did, as they wanted them shorter and shorter. These skirts were also in development by other designers, but Quant's is the name most associated with them. She even named the garments after her favorite make of car: the Mini. In 1966, Quant received her Order of the British Empire for her contribution to the fashion industry. She arrived at Buckingham Palace to accept the honor in a miniskirt and cut-away gloves. That same year, she wrote her first book, Quant by Quant, and has since gone on to write books on make up and another autobiography. Late 1960s and Beyond Quant went on to popularize hot pants in the late '60s, and concentrated on household goods, makeup and clothes during the 1970s and '80s. In 1988, she designed the interior of the Mini Designer, which incorporated black and white striped seats with red trimming and seatbelts. In 2000, Quant resigned as director of Mary Quant LTD, her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. Fact Check We strive for accuracy and fairness.

If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us ! Citation Information Mary Quant - Fashion Designer | Designers | The FMD Mary Quant A word from the EIC Partnerships / Cooperations Become a fashion editor on FMD Content / Usage Questions Why am I listed on FMD? How can I submit content? Credifair (credit for your work) DMCA + Content MGMT the pure fashion news agency January 19th Are Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik engaged? Ralph Lauren and Karl Lagerfeld to dress Melania Trump? ASAP Rocky and Boy George Star in Dior Homme's New Campaign Irina Shayk Lands Two Vogue Brazil Covers Visit website About Mary Quant was the fashion designer and entrepreneur responsible for the "London Look" of the 60's. She was the inventor of the min-skirt and hot pants. She proclaimed "good taste is death, vulgarity is life" and summarized the fashion of the 60's as "arrogant, aggressive and sexy." Although she is still designing today, she is largely known for her 60's creations. Mary Quant was born in London, England on February 11th, 1934.

From 1950-1953 she attended Goldsmith's College of Art in London. After graduating, she worked for Erik, a London milliner. Meanwhile , Alexander Plunket-Greene and Quant had paired up with a friend named Archie McNair. When Greene, who later became her husband, inherited 5,000 pounds on his 21st birthday, the three decided to go into business together. They rented Markham House, a three-story building on King's Road in London's artist district, Chelsea. In Markham House, they opened a boutique on the first floor and a restaurant in the basement. They called the boutique Bazaar in 1955. Here she sold inexpensive, brightly coloured simple clothes which were immediate hits with young girls and boys. These included skinny rib jumpers, ready-to-wear short skirts and dresses, coloured tights, hipster belts, PVC garments and sleeveless crochet tops and hats. In 1957 she opened a second boutique. In 1961 Mary Quant showed her first fur collection and launched her first wholesale company. In 1962 she presented her first collection for the American market. She also started to design for J.C.

PENNEY of New York. Regardless of whether she invented these items, Quant was one of their major popularisers, largely thanks to the fact that Bazaar was a popular haunt for the fashionable "Chelsea Set" of "Swinging London". By 1961, Quant had opened a second Bazaar in Knightsbridge and by 1965 she was exporting to the U.S.. To keep up with demand, Quant went into mass-production, setting up the Ginger Group in 1963. Struggling to make ends meet and suffering ridicule from the press and some passers-by, Quant persevered. In less than ten years, her clothing designs was world famous, selling in 150 shops in Britain, 320 stores in the United States, and throughout the world: France, Italy, Switzerland, Kenya, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and more. From 1964-68 she designed for Butterick patterns. In 1965 she launched the mini-skirt in London. A fashion show was held aboard the royal yacht Queen Elizabeth and was a great hit.

The same year, she took 30 outfits to the USA and the models in their thigh-high dresses stopped traffic on Broadway and in Times Square in New York. They were seen on American TV. She visited l2 cities in 14 days showing clothes to a non-stop dance routine with pop music accompaniment. She soon had built up a million pound industry, selling to nearly all the countries in the Western world and Japan, designing 28 collections a year. In 1966 Mary Quant received the O.B.E. for her services to the fashion industry, and went to receive this honour from the Queen dressed in a mini-skirt. She published a book "Quant by Quant" in 1966. The same year, she introduced her famous and highly successful cosmetics line, with it's striking daisy logo. She also launched a footwear line. In 1967 she opened another boutique. In 1970 she introduced hot pants, tight figure-revealing short shorts, made of knit or soft materials, worn with floor length maxi-coats allowed to swing open and knee high boots. These were an instant success.

During the 70's and 80's Mary Quant continued to add to her product line, putting her Daisy logo on household furnishings, towels and sheets, knitwear, men's ties, eyewear, hats and even a mod version of the Barbie doll. In 1994 she opened the Mary Quant colour shop for cosmetics and beauty products. In 1996 along with many other designers and celebrities, she joined a product making individual masks which were sold for charity and raised quite a good amount. Her clothes have continued to sell well, even today, but she never again achieved the popularity and volume of sales that she did in the 60's. Her cosmetic line however, sells very well today. Mary Quant is now the CEO of the London house of Fraser. She also continues to work as a free-lance designer for various companies. At an age when most designers have put down their sketch pads, Mary still oversees all the creative aspects of her atelier just off London's King's Road. As part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, various fashion celebrities were alloted a year of the Queen's Reign. Mary Quant has been named Woman of the Year 1955.

In 2000, she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy more popularity. Mary became a grandmother for the first time in August 2002, when her son Orlando Plunket-Greene had a son which they have called Lucas Alexander. All the fashion shows of leading designers in New York, London, Paris and Milan - for both Summer and Fall - have been copying Quant designs. She is not at all angry about it but says she thinks it is great. The Look She was a wonderful advertisement for her own designs, her short dark Vidal Sassoon hair style with it's fringe and her easy-fitting young-looking blazer jackets, brief swinging skirts and pinafore dresses. Quant designs were slightly influenced by beat dressing but interpreted in a more considered sharper, varied style. Her concept was uncompromisingly young - ten years younger than the high fashion ideal. She designed for a girlish, less developed figure. Her dresses had simple, boat necklines or childlike, round or pointed collars and narrow shoulders and sleeves.

Summer and evening dresses were frequently sleeveless and body shaping was very understated, shadowing the breasts and waist to giver a long-torsoed, slightly 20's silhouette and hip-level belts and seaming. The long-waisted look made her flared and pleated skirts look even shorter. They were in fact the shortest on record, and were worn with simple strap over shoes or long boots. Mary's designs spoke for themselves, models enjoyed wearing her clothes at fashion shows. Her publicity and success made traditionally cautious designers alter their attitudes and want their own designs to appeal to the newly important, big spending 16 to 25 year old market. Perfumes Mary Quant Mary Quant Mary Quant (born 1934 ) is an English fashion designer credited with inventing the miniskirt and hot pants. Born in Kent , Quant studied illustration at Goldsmith's College before taking a job with a couture milliner . In October 1955 , she teamed up with her husband Alexander Plunkett Greene, and an accountant Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in London called Bazaar.

Following the positive reaction to a pair of "mad house pyjamas " designed for the opening, and dissatisfied with the variety of clothes available to her, Quant decided to make her own range of clothing. Initially working solo, she was soon employing a handful of machinists, producing unusual clothes she considered to be fun. Her skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 - a development she considered to be practical and liberating, allowing women the ability to run for a bus. The miniskirt , for which she is arguably most famous, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s . The miniskirt was developed separately by Andre Courr�ges, and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first. In addition to the miniskirt, Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights that tended to accompany the garment, although these are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga. Irrespective of whether she invented these items, Quant was one of their major popularisers, largely thanks to the fact that Bazaar was a popular haunt for the fashionable Chelsea Set of "Swinging London".

By 1961 , Quant had opened a second Bazaar in Knightsbridge and by 1963 she was exporting to the USA . To keep up with demand, Quant went into mass-production , setting up the Ginger Group. Quant's popularity was at its peak in the mid 1960s, during which time she produced the dangerously short micro-mini skirt, "paint-box" make-up , and plastic raincoats. She was described as being the leading fashion force outside Paris . In 1966 Quant was given an OBE for services to the fashion industry. In the late 1960s, Quant launched hot pants, which was her last big fashion development. Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up. In 2000 , she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy some popularity. Fact-index.com financially supports the Wikimedia Foundation. Displaying this page does not burden Wikipedia hardware resources. This article is from Wikipedia .

All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License . Mary Quant: Dawn O'Porter explores the designer's ability to push the boundaries and revolutionise young women's experience with fashion | London Evening Standard Fashion Mary Quant: Dawn O'Porter explores the designer's ability to push the boundaries and revolutionise young women's experience with fashion Our online columnist explains why she'll never quite cope with the fact that she wasn't a London teenager in the 60s Wednesday 18 February 2015 16:38 BST Click to follow The Evening Standard Designer girl: Mary Quant plays around with some of her designs at home in 1965<br>Picture: Keystone/Getty Flash back to 1955. We're on The Kings Road in London, and a boutique is being opened called Bazaar. A hot new designer is about to explode onto the scene. Determined for fashion to be available to the younger generation, and having just graduated from Goldsmiths College, she's plotting a revolution that will change the entire teenage experience. Her name is Mary Quant, and she's gearing up to make fashion more exciting than ever.

Mary Quant was born in Blackheath on 11th February 1934. While there she studied illustration at Goldsmith's College, got a diploma in Art Education, and also met her husband, Alexander Plunkett-Greene, who became her life long business partner. Dress designer: Mary at her desk with husband Alexander Plunkett Greene at their home Picture: Keystone/Getty Images Quant doesn't have a controversial or particularly wild personal history (not that I know of anyway) like many of the other designers I have, and will, profile in this column. But to me she is just as exciting. I wanted to write about her not only because of the looks that she created, but because of what she did for young women. She realised that fashion was an elite sport, the big design houses were too expensive for the 'youth', and young girls were still dressing like versions of their mothers. Quant wanted to offer young women the chance to be their own entity. She wanted to produce more affordable clothing that appealed to a new generation. Designing clothes that were about freedom and expression, rather than being well behaved and pleasing men.

Thoughtful: the designer at work, circa 1965 Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty The 'youthquake' that her designs inspired spread fast. 'The Chelsea Look' and 'The MOD era' were emulated far beyond the reach of The Kinds Road. Soon the whole world was looking to London for style inspiration, and Mary Quant was right there showing them how it was done. In 1961 she opened her second store, and by 1963 she was starting to mass produce and exporting to the United States. Many say Mary Quant invented the mini skirt, but that's a little up in the air. Although, no-one can deny that she took it to the masses. The appeal of the mini was that it was youthful, simple and stylish but easy to wear, offering a sense of freedom for the wearer. It therefore played a huge role in liberating women at a time when feminism was making some massive breakthroughs. The strict confides of the nipped in waists of the 50s silhouette were out by the mid 60s.

Open waists (shift dresses) and short skirts that enabled the legs to be free so women could run, dance and do whatever else those 60s gals wanted to do, were what the decade was all about. The introduction of the contraceptive pill in 1961 spawned a new breed of independent women, and Mary Quant had just the outfit to suit their mood. International success: Mary with models at Heathrow Airport before leaving for a continental fashion tour Picture: Express/Getty Mary herself says that it was the girls on the Kings Road who actually invented the mini skirt. "I was making, easy, youthful, simple clothes, in which you could move, in which you could run and jump and we would make them the length the customer wanted. I wore them very short and the customers would say, 'shorter shorter'." Of course as the skirts got shorter bare legs weren't always preferable, so Mary had the genius idea of making hosiery fun as well as practical. And with the new invention of tights (well, have you ever worn a micro mini with a pair of stockings?) she thought to cover them in funky and bold prints, making legs as much a part of the look as the skirts themselves.

By the late 60s Mary was moving into cosmetics, but she continued to design looks that became synonymous with the decade. The pinafore dress and her colorful plastic raincoats were all the rage. Pensive portrait: Mary at work at home circa 1965 Picture: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty As well as creating these sought after styles, Mary herself looked the part too. I've mentioned in a previous column that she famously rocked the Vidal Sassoon 5 point cut. Not an easy look to pull off, may I add, but Mary nailed it. I often to refer back to images of her when looking for inspiration, because she not only made icons out of the people she dressed, but was also one herself. Her look encapsulated an era - fun, modern, brave and new. She excites me because she actively motivated a change in fashion that so desperately needed to happen after the 50s squeezed women's rib cages and shoved them back into the kitchen.

Dawn O'Porter Columns Mary Quant Facts for Kids | KidzSearch.com 3 Other websites Career In November 1955, she teamed up with her husband, Alexander Plunket Greene, and a former solicitor , Archie McNair, to open a clothes shop on the Kings Road in Chelsea called Bazaar. Bazaar's best sellers were small white plastic collars to brighten up black dresses or t-shirts. Black stretch stockings were also popular. Miniskirt Velvet minidress, not by Quant Mini feather-skirt. Not by Quant, but shows the idea is well alive. © Glenn Francis, Skirts had been getting shorter since about 1958 – a development Mary Quant thought was practical and liberating, allowing women to run for a bus. The miniskirt , which she is most famous for, became one of the defining fashions of the 1960s. [4] The miniskirt was also developed separately by André Courrèges and John Bates , [5] and there is disagreement as to who came up with the idea first.

Like most fashion, the short- and ever-shorter skirt was evolving already among fashion-minded young women: the designers who adapted it just helped spread the style and, in Quant's case, gave it a name. Mary Quant named the miniskirt after her favourite make of car, the Mini . [6] She loved the car so much, she had one designed especially for her. She renamed the basics "booby traps and bacon savers" ( bras and tights ), which appealed to her young customers. [7] In addition to the miniskirt, Mary Quant is often credited with inventing the coloured and patterned tights ( pantyhose ) that often went with the miniskirt. These are also attributed to Cristobal Balenciaga or John Bates. [5] Tights worn over briefs or bikini panties were an essential accessory to the miniskirt, because the older method of stockings plus suspenders was no longer suitable, and legs need to be covered for most of the year in Britain . Often there would be a second pair of coloured short pants on top of the tights, for show. A range of materials and colours were used for the tights.

Later career In the late 1960s, Quant popularised hot pants . Through the 1970s and 1980s she concentrated on household goods and make-up , rather than just her clothing lines. At a talk at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007 she claimed to have invented duvet covers. She is a Fellow of the Chartered Society of Designers, and winner of the Minerva Medal, the Society's highest award. In 1963 Quant was the first winner of the 'Dress of the Year' award. In 2000 she resigned as director of Mary Quant Ltd., her cosmetics company, after a Japanese buy-out. There are over 200 Mary Quant Colour shops in Japan, where Quant fashions continue to enjoy popularity. References ↑ Mary Quant in Voguepedia. [1] ↑ The Woman of the Year is a British Award, founded in 1955; it is now sponsored by Barclays Bank . [2] ↑ Mods and Rockers : The Mod movement was antithetical to (opposite, against) the Rocker movement.

The Mods and Rockers were two conflicting British youth subcultures of the early-mid 1960s... The rockers adopted a macho biker gang image, wearing clothes such as black leather jackets. The mods adopted a pose of scooter-driving sophistication, wearing suits and other cleancut outfits. BIOGRAPHY OF MARY QUANT| [MARY QUANT COSMETICS LTD.] Born in London on February 11. 1955 Opens her first boutique, BAZAAR in Kings Road, Chelsea (London). The mini-skirt sensation begins. 1957 The second Bazaar store opens in Knightsbridge, (London). Mary Quant marries her partner, the late Alexander Plunkett Greene. 1962 Enters the American market with the conclusion of a licensing agreement with J. C. Penny for clothing and underwear design. From this point onward, Mary Quant is inundated with requests for designs in various fields, not only from Britain, but also Europe and the United States. 1963 Wins the SUNDAY TIMES INTERNATIONAL AWARD and is selected as the WOMAN OF THE YEAR. Establishes GINGER GROUP, launching global-scale production and wholesaling of Mary Quant designed clothing.

1964 Wins the Maison Branch Rex Award. （U.S.A.） 1966 Begins design of cosmetics; launches MARY QUANT COSMETICS. Made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her achievement with the mini skirt. Wins the Piavla d’Ora Award （ITALY）. Her autobiography, QUANT BY QUANT is published. 1967 Selected as a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists（F.S.I.A.） and wins that year’s design award. 1969 Selected as a Royal Designer for Industry（R.D.I.）. Inducted into the British Fashion Council Hall of Fame for her enormous contribution to British fashion. 1970 Begins interior and textile design. Son Orlando is born. Sale of Mary Quant cosmetics in Japan begins in March. 1972 Mary Quant visits Japan for the 1st time. 1973 Hold a special exhibition, MARY QUANT’S LONDON at the London Museum. Appointed as a member of the 200th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between Great Britain and the United States Committee.

1975 The BBC broadcasts a 1 hour-length special film entitled LIFE OF MARY QUANT. 1977 Mary Quant visits Japan for the 2nd time. 1982 Mary Quant visits Japan for the 3rd time. 1983 Sale of the Mary Quant Collection (leotards, tights, socks, leg warmers) in Japan begins. MARY QUANT AT HOME, a grand collection of interior-related designs, is launched in New York. 1984 COLOUR BY QUANT, a book about color by Mary Quant, is published. 1985 Wins the Pret-a-porter Fashion Federation Award (France). 1986 QUANT ON MAKEUP, a book about make-up by Mary Quant, is published in Britain and creates a sensation. 1987 The Japanese language edition of QUANT ON MAKEUP is published. Mary Quant visits Japan for the book launch. 1989 MARY QUANT’S STYLE FILE, a video about make-up, is released in Britain.

1990 skiffle « Another Nickel In The Machine Bazaar in 1955 Bazaar and the Markham Arms (now a Santander bank) today The King’s Road in 1958. The Bluebird Garage can be seen down the road at numbers 330-350. The garage was opened in 1923 and was the largest in Europe with room for 300 cars in the main garage. The King’s Road today-ish. The garage is now a restaurant of course. The shop, which they called Bazaar, opened in November 1955 and was an almost immediate success with the stock flying out of the door. Although initially this was partly to do with naively selling their clothes and accessories too cheaply thus not only losing money on everything they sold but also upsetting the local shops and their wholesalers by undercutting the fixed retail prices. It wasn’t long, however, that the trio of entrepreneurs realised that by luck they were on to a huge thing: We were in at the beginning of a tremendous renaissance in fashion. It was not happening because of us. It was simply that, as things turned out, we were a part of it.

Mary Quant and Alexander Plunket Green Mary Quant and APG worked incredibly hard. They had also opened a restaurant in the basement of Markham House which soon became the place to come to in Chelsea. But if they worked hard they also played hard – incredibly they were still both only twentyone. According to Quant the couple always found time to visit the music hall shows at the Chelsea Palace theatre down the road from Bazaar. At the time the shows were often slightly risqué in nature. “We went once a week” said Mary. “the Chelsea Palace chorus girls wore very naughty fur bikini knickers.” It must have been a very funny show… Paul Raymond’s ‘Burlesque’ was performed at the Chelsea Palace in 1955 Burlesque by Paul Raymond – how kind of Jeye’s Fluid to sponsor the show (see the bottom of the bill) Chelsea Palace of Varieties The Chelsea Palace of Varieties had opened for business in 1903 at 232-42 King’s Road on the corner of Sydney Street opposite the Town Hall. It seated 2524 people.

Marie Lloyd appeared there in 1909 and performed an act so vulgar that a complaint was made to the London County Council. By 1923 it started to be used as a cinema as well as showing straight plays and ballets. In 1925 it was taken over by Variety Theatres Consolidated and from then until its closure in March 1957 it presented live theatre, often of a risque nature. One of the shows put on in 1955 called ‘Burlesque’ was produced by Paul Raymond at the beginning of his career. During the latter part of 1956 the Chelsea Palace ran a Radio Luxembourg talent competition and it was won for four weeks in a row by the Fantasie coffee shop regulars – the Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group. McDevitt described his flat in Chelsea at the time: The flat I the King’s Road was an ideal pad in an ideal position. It provided a haven for many an itinerant jazzer, visiting American folkies and unsuspecting embryo groupies. During the Chelsea Palace talent contests McDevitt met a twenty year old Glaswegian singer called Anne Wilson whose stage name was Nancy Whiskey.

Within six months Nancy Whiskey and McDevitt’s skiffle group had recorded a single called Freight Train. Amazingly, to most people concerned, it actually ended up in the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. They even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show in the US along side the Everly Brothers six years before the Beatles’ famous appearance. The particularly British institution of skiffle only lasted two or three years perhaps but its influence was long-lasting. It was a do-it-yourself reaction to the bland mediocrity that many young people felt about the popular music of the time. This was echoed twenty years later in the mid-seventies with punk which had a lot of similarities with skiffle. The Kings Road played its part in that too. With his new success Chas McDevitt opened his own coffee bar in Berwick Street in Soho which he called, of course, the Freight Train coffee bar. The swinging sixties were a bit of a myth this is what the King’s Road really looked like. The King’s Road: Sundays weren’t for shopping in the Sixties In 1957 the Chelsea Palace was renamed the Chelsea Granada and was to become a cinema.

Although almost immediately the building was leased to Granada Television, within the same company, and the stalls in the theatre were replaced by a studio floor and it became Granada Studio 10 for the next eight years to augment the specially built studio complex in Manchester. Sidney Bernstein, who with his brother Cecil owned Granada and which had recently won the franchise license to broadcast commercial television in the north west of England, numbered their studios by just using even numbers. This was simply so as to appear they owned more studios than they did. It was actually the last of the London theatre to TV studio conversions. The Shepherd’s Bush Empire was now a BBC studio and Associated Television had already converted the Hackney Empire and the Wood Green Empire. Incidentally it was at the Wood Green theatre in 1918 that the American magician known as Chung Ling Soo, (or William Robinson as he was really called) was tragically shot and fatally injured while performing his infamous act which involved catching (or not) a bullet between his teeth. His last words were “Oh my God. Something’s happened. Lower the curtain.” It shocked everyone. Not so much that he had been shot but that he wasn’t Chinese and spoke perfect English.

William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, told almost no one that he wasn’t Chinese. Boris Karloff wonders ‘Who Killed Chung Ling Soo’. Studio 10 was used for the long running and extremely popular comedy series – the Army Game which ran for five years from 1957. An incredible 154 episodes were broadcast and the cast included many that would become household names for decades to come – Alfie Bass, Geoffrey Palmer, Bill Fraser, Dick Emery and Bernard Bresslaw and the writers included a young John Junkin, Marty Feldman and Barry Took. The Army Game Another very popular show that came from Granada’s King’s Road studio was the variety show called Chelsea at Nine. It ran for three series and purposely took advantage of the studio’s location in the capital to feature artists that were appearing in town. This meant that sometimes you would get one of the finest jazz musicians on earth playing after a comedian that would struggle to get on the end of a bill in Skegness. Ella Fitzgerald once had to introduce an act who was appearing after her on the show as ‘the world’s greatest song and dance spoons man’. She laughed and laughed and simply couldn’t do it.

On the 23rd of February 1959 a very gaunt and very unsteady Billie Holiday was helped up on stage and performed three songs. Strange Fruit, Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone and I Loves You Porgy. Luckily for us the shows were by then being recorded but they proved to be the last she ever made and she died just five months later of cirrhosis of the liver in a New York hospital on 17th July. Only Strange Fruit and I Loves You Porgy still survive. Billie Holiday – I Loves You Porgy The Chelsea Palace was shamefully demolished by developers in 1966 after Granada vacated the premises. If one day you’re buying a sofa in Heals which is situated on the corner of the King’s Road and Sydney Street where the Chelsea Palace once stood, you might take a few moments to note that one of the world’s greatest ever singers sang a few songs maybe just where you’re standing. Heals today and not the Chelsea Palace King’s Road in 1967 By the time the Chelsea Palace was demolished the miniskirt was ubiquitous on the King’s Road and pretty well everywhere else.

In the ten years since she and APK had opened Bazaar she had become an international success. Quant and her clothes were an integral part of the so-called Swinging London. At the age of 32, dressed of course in a miniskirt, she received an OBE from the Queen. Brilliant Pathé footage of Mary Quant in 1967 Loudon Wainwright who wrote a column for Life magazine and was based in London In 1967 Loudon Wainwright, father of Loudon Wainwright III and grandfather to Rufus and Martha was working in London for Life magazine. In his column called ‘The View From Here’ he wrote: Until very recently one of my least crucial handicaps has been a sort of built-in propriety which, for example has forced me to avert my eyes whenever I say that a lady was going to have difficulty with her skirt. By difficulty I mean that the skirt was threatening to go up too high – in a chair, in the wind, as its owner disembarked from a taxi. Loudon continues… I’m not sure how this propriety has survived the miniskirt fashions…but a few days of lovely spring weather in London have abolished it forever.

The balmy sunshine there brought out the miniskirts in mind-reeling profusion. The town was positively atwinkle with thighs…the training of years misspent in the useless protection of female modesty betrayed me, and I had to learn how to stare. Yet soon the delightful truth that I was supposed to notice - burst upon me.. A few months later Mary Quant was interviewed in the Guardian That’s the thing about today’s fashions – they’re sexy to look at but really more puritan than they’ve ever been. In European countries where they ban mini-skirts in the streets and say they’re an invitation to rape, they don’t understand about stocking tights underneath. Miniskirts and men outside Bazaar in 1966/7 Mary Quant and APG in 1964

Question: Which fashion designer opened a shop called 'Bazaar' on King's Road in London in 1957?
Answer: MARY QUANT